[Metrobeans]

Abortion (Amendment) Bill 2012, JPKC

Abortion (Amendment) Act 2012

An Act to affirm the reproductive rights of all women in the United Kingdom.


BE IT ENACTED by The Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Commons in this present Parliament assembled, in accordance with the provisions of the Parliament Acts 1911 and 1949, and by the authority of the same, as follows:-


Part I: Amendments
1 Amendment to section 7 subsection (3) of the Abortion Act 1967
(1) In Section 7(3) of the Abortion Act 1967 the existing provision is replaced with the following:

(3) This Act extends across the United Kingdom.

2 Amendment to section 1 of the Abortion Act 1967
(1) In section 1 of the Abortion Act 1967 the existing provisions are replaced with the following:

1 Medical termination of pregnancy
(1) Subject to the provisions of this section, a person shall not be guilty of an offence under the law relating to abortion when a pregnancy is terminated by a registered medical practitioner—

(a) upon the request of a pregnant woman.

(3) Except as provided by subsection (4) of this section, any treatment for the termination of pregnancy must be carried out in a hospital vested in the Minister of Health or the Secretary of State under the National Health Service Acts, or in a place for the time being approved for the purposes of this section by the said Minister or the Secretary of State.
(4) Subsection (3) and (1)(a) of this section shall not apply to the termination of a pregnancy by a registered medical practitioner in a case where he is of the opinion, formed in good faith, that the termination is immediately necessary to save the life or to prevent grave, permanent injury to the physical or mental health of the pregnant woman.

Part II: Provision
3 National Health Service provision
(1) The NHS must provide abortion services.
(2) No pregnant woman requesting an abortion should wait longer than one week for the procedure to be provided by the NHS.


Part III: Miscellaneous
4 Short Title
(1) This Act may be cited as the Abortion (Amendment) Act 2012.


5 Commencement
(1) This Act will enter law on the 1st of September 2012.

Notes

Abortion Act 1967

Explanation for Each Section

1 Amendment to section 7 subsection (3) of the Abortion Act 1967

Spoiler:

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Abortion Act 1967

7 Short title, commencement and extent.

(1) This Act may be cited as the Abortion Act 1967.
(2) This Act shall come into force on the expiration of the period of six months beginning with the date on which it is passed.
(3) This Act does not extend to Northern Ireland.

The British abortion law was never extended to Northern Ireland and women there still don’t have access to safe legal abortion. With the developments in the peace process in Northern Ireland and the re-establishment of the institutions, it is time women there had their own rights to abortion. NI has the highest teenage pregnancy rate in the UK, and women desperate for abortions are forced into using dubious DIY methods that can cause great trauma and threaten their own lives.

2 Amendment to section 1 of the Abortion Act 1967

Spoiler:

Show

Abortion Act 1967

1 Medical termination of pregnancy.

(1) Subject to the provisions of this section, a person shall not be guilty of an offence under the law relating to abortion when a pregnancy is terminated by a registered medical practitioner if two registered medical practitioners are of the opinion, formed in good faith—

(a) that the continuance of the pregnancy would involve risk to the life of the pregnant woman, or of injury to the physical or mental health of the pregnant woman or any existing children of her family, greater than if the pregnancy were terminated; or

(b) that there is a substantial risk that if the child were born it would suffer from such physical or mental abnormalities as to be seriously handicapped.

(2) In determining whether the continuance of a pregnancy would involve such risk of injury to health as is mentioned in paragraph (a) of subsection (1) of this section, account may be taken of the pregnant woman's actual or reasonably foreseeable environment.

(3) Except as provided by subsection (4) of this section, any treatment for the termination of pregnancy must be carried out in a hospital vested in the Minister of Health or the Secretary of State under the National Health Service Acts, or in a place for the time being approved for the purposes of this section by the said Minister or the Secretary of State.

(4) Subsection (3) of this section, and so much of subsection (1) as relates to the opinion of two registered medical practitioners, shall not apply to the termination of a pregnancy by a registered medical practitioner in a case where he is of the opinion, formed in good faith, that the termination is immediately necessary to save the life or to prevent grave, permanent injury to the physical or mental health of the pregnant woman.

Under the law as it currently stands, abortion is not legally available at the request of the woman. After a woman has decided that she wants to end her pregnancy, she has to persuade two doctors to agree to her decision on the basis of restrictive legal criteria. This requirement is not only paternalistic, but more damagingly, it allows the approximately one in ten doctors who are opposed to all abortion the opportunity to delay, obstruct or even veto women’s decisions. There is no legal requirement for doctors to declare their conscientious objection to abortion but professional guidelines require that they do refer a woman on to another doctor immediately. Anti-choice doctors, instead of declaring their objection and referring women on, have wrongly told them that they are too late, that they have lost their pregnancy test results, that they are not entitled to an NHS abortion, that abortion is murder or who have refused to refer them to another GP. This is unacceptable. It is time for a modern law – where women not doctors make the abortion decision.

3 National Health Service provision

Spoiler:

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Making women wait weeks and weeks for an abortion just extends the ordeal and adds uneeded emotional anguish to the pregnant woman who has already chosen to terminate. In Abortion Rights’ March 2007 opinion poll, 72 per cent said it was not acceptable for a woman who had been referred for an abortion to have to wait beyond three weeks for the procedure. It is also true that there is no obligation for the NHS to provide abortion services currently.

[MacDaddi]

Could you change my vote to an Aye please? I thought it was tufc's so i just clicked Nay :P

[Metrobeans]

(Original post by MacDaddi)
Could you change my vote to an Aye please? I thought it was tufc's so i just clicked Nay :P

Done.

[Life_peer]

(Original post by MacDaddi)
Could you change my vote to an Aye please? I thought it was tufc's so i just clicked Nay :P

What a double fail! I repped you because I misread that you thought it was JPKC's (which it is) and hence was automatically opposed! Whatever…

[chrisawhitmore]

Excellent bill and a definite aye.

[LETSJaM]

Aye.

<3 x

[Rhadamanthus]

I would love to vote 'Aye', as a pro-choicer, but the section on mandatory NHS provision killed it for me.

[WhatTheFunk]

(Original post by Metrobeans)
Done.

I did the same as MacDaddi, I even read and still thought it was the other bill.

[Moleman1996]

I'll either abstain or vote no, haven't decided yet

But great job with the notes again

[Rakas21]

Aye.

[RoryS]

Aye

[misterxninja]

Good job JPKC, well researched and pointed out. AYE!

[SciFiRory]

definite Aye.

[Metrobeans]

(Original post by WhatTheFunk)
I did the same as MacDaddi, I even read and still thought it was the other bill.

Amended.

[Metrobeans]

The aye's have it! The aye's have it!